From an e-mail I just got: you know?"Let the Queen know of our gests," Antony instructs his men after a hard-wonvictory on the battlefield in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. Greatdeeds and heroic acts have been the stuff of gests since medieval days; infact, the word is more often associated with knights and heroes of old thanwith modern adventurers. We may not be hearing about many 21st century"gests," but we do frequently encounter other relatives of the word. "Gest"traces to Latin "gestus," the past participle of the verb "gerere," whichmeans "to wage," "to accomplish," or "to act," among other things. ThatLatin verb gave us stoutly enduring words like "gesture," "ingest," "jest,""register," and "suggest."

I've always spelled it as in "Beau Geste", story about French Foreign Legion I so much enjoyed as a teen-ager.

Wouldn't you think that this word gest is etymologically linked to gist ( the gist of the gest!). But no, my Webster's tells me that gist comes from L. jacere, to build, to found....Hunches don't always work.

Like I thought of the word quest which is also not related to gest but just like it is associated with heroic deeds by knighs and heroes of old.Quest and question both coming from quśrere "seek, gain, ask.

Disclaimer: Wordsmith.org is not responsible for views expressed on this site.
Use of this forum is at your own risk and liability - you agree to
hold Wordsmith.org and its associates harmless as a condition of using it.